After tallying the items on my list and their less expensive substitutes, the savings amounted to about 40 dollars per week for a family of four. This is not accounting for additional deals or coupons that I could have used to increase my savings even further. Saving 40 dollars a week led to yearly savings of 2080 dollars. According to the 2015 US poverty guidelines for a family of four of $24,250, the yearly savings are approximately 8.5% of the budget. Living on such a low income while supporting children is difficult enough, but choosing the food that is financially and nutritionally right for your family makes the whole process that much more stressful.
When choosing alternatives, I generally tried to go for quantity instead of quality to stretch my theoretical dollar as far as it could go. Instead of the dozen organic cage-free eggs, I selected the 24 pack of eggs that cost half the price and instead of the fiber enriched cereals, I chose the value bag that would last three times as long. I avoided brand names and tried to go for the generic versions. They sometimes had similar ingredients list but buying generic was often a few cents or a dollar less expensive. For a family of four, I can imagine how difficult it would be to shop every week and want to buy food that is easy to cook, tasty, nutritious, etc. but knowing that there is a limited budget. When I placed myself in the shopping mother's or father's shoes, I wanted to buy expensive food or snacks or treats so the meals were not just for base nutrition, but I felt a little guilt because I knew that with that extra money I could buy a few days worth of rice or pasta. There is a certain pride that is associated with buying the high quality food (whatever your definition of that is) instead of generic, bulk-quantity food. Fitchen also touched upon this issue and I can see how people want to be perceived, either by themselve or by others, as living a "normal" eating lifestyle.
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